Babs Anderson
Liverpool Hope University
Threshold concepts of facilitation: A Journey
Abstract
The research project in this paper focuses on an established Problem-based
learning (PBL) course, chosen by third-year undergraduate students studying
Childhood studies in the North-West of England.
Following Cousins (2009), we examine three aspects of the learning context for both
staff and students, a. what may be considered fundamental to the effective
facilitation by tutors required by a PBL course, b. how tutors feel they have managed
the process of supporting students in learning in such a manner, c. what support
strategies are required for both tutor and student in order to create maximum
engagement within this type of course.
The concept of Threshold concepts as proposed by Meyer and Land (2005, 2006)
articulates that students need to gain knowledge and understanding of fundamental
concepts in order to gain access to mastery of the subject. Therefore the question
arose as to what are the threshold concepts for successful facilitation of PBL courses
by tutors.
Paper
The research project in this paper focuses on an established Problem-based
learning (PBL) course, chosen as an option, by third-year undergraduate students
undertaking a University programme in Childhood studies in the North-West of
England. In PBL courses (Savin-Baden and Major, 2004), the students are posed a
question as part of an enquiry. One of the forms that this question can take is that of
a scenario, so that through their self-directed research, the students actively explore
a range of potential professional responses to this scenario. The specific scenario in
the PBL course, examined in the research, is one requiring Multi-Agency teams to
collaborate successfully in order to support four young children and their family when
faced with a problematic issue.
Following on from the work of Cousins (2009), we examine three aspects of the
learning context for both staff and students, a. what may be considered fundamental
to the effective facilitation by tutors required by a PBL course, b. how tutors feel they
have managed the process of supporting students in learning in such a manner, c.
what support strategies are required for both tutor and student in order to create
maximum engagement within this type of course.
The concept of Threshold concepts as proposed by Meyer and Land (2005, 2006)
articulates that students need to gain knowledge and understanding of fundamental
concepts in order to gain access to mastery of the subject. However this is also true
for tutors in learning to use a range of teaching and learning strategies effectively,
such as PBL, which may be widely divorced from the traditional didactic tutor style
they themselves may have experienced as successful students. Therefore the
question arose as to what are the threshold concepts for successful facilitation of
PBL courses, given the four areas identified by Meyer and Land (2005:373-374) as
‘transformative’, ‘irreversible’, ‘integrative’ and ‘troublesome’. As part of the study, we
examine liminal states for both tutors and students, where for the tutors, there is the
requirement to relinquish what may have been difficult to have mastered in the first
place, that of expert knowledge transfer specialist and to occupy an unstable place
where knowledge and understanding must be created by the participants, with the
tutor one of many enquirers. For the students also, the course provides a difficult
transformation from the known to the unknown within a context of high personal
value, for as a third year undergraduate course, the assessments for the course
carried a proportion of the degree classification.
A previous research project (Orlandi and Anderson, 2012) had investigated student
perceptions of PBL and the potential learning gains experienced at the end of such a
course. The course design was intended to give the students an opportunity to
engage with the professional duties, skills, knowledge and understanding required in
order to equip them more fully with the exacting requirements of entering the
children’s workforce as graduate workers. The research indicated clearly that the
students felt the course equipped them well to enter the workplace with confidence in
their own abilities, although the learning journey through the course was felt to be
difficult and uncertain and it was only at the end of the course, that the students
could recognise the learning gains from their experiences undergoing the process.
Yet in this the requirements acting on tutors were unclear. Understanding the
threshold concepts for the tutors in gaining mastery of effective facilitation in PBL
courses required further research from a different perspective.
Therefore we examine the journey of the tutors from that of the sharing of expertise
as one who narrates their truth to the students (Freire, 1970) to one, who coconstructs alongside the students.
The present opportunity arose when three experienced members of staff in PBL
were joined on the team in October 2012 by a colleague, unused to working with
PBL courses and deciding to use her insights and those of the other members of the
team as a form of ethnographic enquiry ( Fetterman, 2010), rendering the now
familiar practices for the experienced tutors unfamiliar once again in order to
problematise and therefore better comprehend them.
After gaining ethical approval from the University Education Ethics committee, the
research project explores the responses of the new colleague, the established PBL
practitioners and the students to the lived experiences within such a means of tutor/
student interaction as PBL over the period of the academic year. The ethical
approval was cognisant of the challenges to staff well-being as well as to that of the
students, given that the staff members were exposing their belief in themselves as
effective lecturers and tutors in a Higher Education institution, both individually and
within the team, within the present climate of change and uncertainty in Higher
education in the United Kingdom.
The research project uses a case study approach (Bassey, 1999) in the aim of
adding incrementally to a body of knowledge rather than aiming for grounded theory
generation as the experiences described and analysed may be pertinent only to this
unique context. However the role of facilitator in Higher Education is one familiar to
many, from a wide range of disciplines (Heron, 1989).
The methods used involve a focus group interview with the academic tutors, group
interviews with the students, peer observation by the tutors and documentary
analysis. Qualitative data analysis is conducted in seeking common themes or
anomalies.
The preliminary findings show how a perceived lack of confidence on the part of the
tutor in PBL can impact on the confidence of the students and their engagement with
their learning. They also highlight that even for experienced PBL practitioners, the
tension between their other didactic teaching roles and the ethos of PBL can lead to
overly prescriptive strategies within the Problem-based learning course, thus
diminishing the potential gains provided by PBL.
References
Bassey, M. (1999) Case Study research in educational settings. Maidenhead: Open
University Press
Cousins, G. (2009) Researching learning in Higher Education. Abingdon: Routledge
Fetterman, D.M. (2010) Ethnography. Step-by-step (3rd edn).Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage
Freire, P. (1996) Pedagogy of the oppressed. London: Penguin
Heron, J. (1989) The facilitator’s handbook. London: Kogan Page
Meyer, J.H.F. and Land, R. (2005) Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge
(2): Epistemological considerations and a conceptual framework for teaching and
learning. Higher Education, 49, pp. 373–388
Meyer, J.H.F. and Land, R. (2006) Overcoming barriers to student understanding:
threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge. London: Routledge
Orlandi, K. and Anderson, B. (2012) Researching the role of dialogue, writing and
critical reflection in unlearning for students with professional backgrounds. Teaching
Anthropology, 2 (1), pp. 22-27
Savin-Baden, M. and Major, C. H. (2004) Foundations of Problem-based learning.
Maidenhead: Open University Press